"Forever never seems that long ~~until you're grown"Bandido- November 24, 1957- August 12th, 2011.....RIP, my good friend... things will never be the same here without you. :( Gonemad -June 26th, 1962-May 13th, 2008
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I think its even less of a big deal that he bet as a player, (If he never bet against his own team) because he would have less control of the games than if he was a manager. Now, if he ever bet against a team he was playing on then he should obviously be banned for life.

I think its even less of a big deal that he bet as a player, (If he never bet against his own team) because he would have less control of the games than if he was a manager. Now, if he ever bet against a team he was playing on then he should obviously be banned for life.

I hear this from a lot of people..."well, he never bet on the Reds to lose"....
If he consistently betted on them to win, but did not place bets on certain gamedays, one could assume he had little confidence they would win that particular game.

The bookies follow the betting patterns and this allows outside influences to effect the integrity of the game.

He bet on the game. The penalty for that is a lifetime banishment, and he accepted that. He's still alive, so already right there that means he's still out.

Moving past that.

"He never bet as a player and only bet on the Reds to win."

1 The only words that matter is "bet on the Reds." He broke the rules plain and simple. 2 If you're naive enough to think he honestly never bet as a player, then I don't know what to tell you. I highly doubt after retiring he all of a sudden decided "hey, know what would be fun? Betting on baseball!" 3 As someone mentioned before, he didn't even bet everyday. As the manager of the team, that brings out a REALLY gray area. What days didn't he bet? Was it the day he had his 5th starter going? Did he rest 3 of his starters and decide his best reliever wasn't going that day? To me NOT placing a bet on those days was the EXACT same as betting that they'd lose. There's no way he was throwing his top team out there on those days knowing he'd have money on the next day. Not saying he managed to lose, but every team has those days where you rest guys and just hope to win. That's what those days were.

"At least he never did PEDs!"

I personally argue that betting on the game is WORSE than PEDs, because at least the PEDs guys were actively TRYING to better themselves and help the team win. But both are cheating and unethical so I won't go there. The bigger issue is, does anyone take the time to realize that his bookie/one time roommate was a KNOWN PED dealer? Pete played well into his 40s in order to break the record, in the time that steroids became a big thing. Put 2 and 2 together....while it can't and never will be proven, it looks AWFULLY likely that he was on roids at the tail end of his career. That would make him DOUBLE the piece of trash.

"But he's truly sorry."

I bet serial killers are too once they're caught. Doesn't make the punishment any lighter. Besides, if Pete were TRULY sorry, he'd quit showing up in Cooperstown every year during the HOF induction ceremony signing autographs. He'd quit signing in Vegas casinos. He'd quit with the autobiographies that magically seem to show up every time he wants to talk to the commish about reinstatement. He's not sorry, he's milking this for every dollar and every minute of attention he can.

I'm a person who generally believes in giving people 2nd chances, but screw Pete Rose. He was obviously a great player and his accomplishments belong in the Hall of Fame....but much like Shoeless Joe before him(who has a MUCH better case for reinstatement), he did the crime and now he's left out. And it's 100% his fault.